Artigiano, High St. Exeter

On the other end of the scale, miles away from Cafe Central (see previous article) is another new opening in Exeter. Artigiano is a direct import from London, and has brought a bit of coffee sophistication to the High St. Right opposite Starbucks (haha).

Not that Exeter is devoid of amazing places to drink and appreciate fine coffee. Devon Coffee, Boston Tea Party, Butternut Cafe, Darkhorse Espresso are a few places that spring to mind that take pride in serving good coffee. So can Artigiano muscle in on Exeter’s already flourishing cafe scene? I paid them a visit yesterday to see what all the fuss is about.

Lets talk coffee first. And I was really happy to be introduced to one of the Barista’s who was more than happy to tell me anything I wanted to know. The main things I learnt was that each day a lot of preparation goes in to getting the blends just right, fine tuning the grinders and getting the settings perfect before serving coffee. The Barista’s have to know their stuff too and have a real passion and knowledge for coffee. They proudly serve Origin coffee, as do Devon Coffee and the Phoenix Cafe/Bar, which is some of the nicest coffee I have tried. In the grinder on Saturday was an F30 Winter Espresso which produced an almost perfect Americano.

Lets talk Heritage. In a previous article on here, I mentioned that Artigiano already has two cafe’s in London. Easy Living rated Artigiano one of the best places to get coffee in the capital, they have a cafe in New Oxford Street and St Paul’s and are rated to be one of the best places in London to get a coffee. That is obviously not overlooking the umpteen-zillion other places that serve coffee in London, but we can now look forward to having one of London’t favourite coffee serving establishments in Exeter, and soon Taunton.

My visit was a brief one, a typical visit to a cafe tends to be brief for me, so I am not rating it as I didn’t eat and I’m not really interested in putting it in a box yet. The service was very friendly, they gave me a loyalty card and asked me if I had been before. They explained that the Baristas would bring over the coffee once it’d been made which was a nice touch as I didn’t have to stand around waiting (which I really don’t like). The interior is modern, almost pulled out of some fashionable coffee table magazine with interesting light fittings, lots of wood and hints of vintage here and there.

Artigiano an interesting and welcome addition to the portfolio of ‘where do you want to meet for coffee’ type of destinations. Given they open much later than other coffee places means they also serve alcohol too, which Craft Beers available as well as wine. Pop in and say hello.